The Red Menace

The luxury airship "WORKER'S VOYAGE" is the next target of those capitalist pigs, the Fortune Hunters! They seek to rescue their fellow imperialist, Dr. Wilhelm Fassenbiender, a scientist known for his cooperation with the German fascists and the American capitalists...! To be honest, Dr. Fassenbiender is an old acquaintance of Nathan Zachary who is abducted by Russian spies to work for them on revolutionary aviation projects. His daughter Ilsa managed to transmit a distress call to Zachary who is about to improvise yet again with a risky plan to pick the Doctor off the getaway Zeppelin. Surprises besides strong Russian resistance are also expected by other pirate groups, since the luxury zeppelin is said to bear treasures...

Recommended Plane
There are two methods, which mean two recommendations. If you struggle against the defending Devastators, bring a dogfighter, either your own Devastator or maybe a Bloodhawk. If, on the other hand, your problem is knocking out the "WORKERS' VOYAGE", bring something loaded with at least one pair of .70-cal cannons, like a Balmoral or, better yet, a Warhawk.

Recommended Loadout
Primarily flak rockets for this one, since you want to disable the "WORKERS' VOYAGE", not destroy it. If you've gone with the heavy-fighter route, you'll have enough rockets to knock out the engines and do a number on the fighters. If you're bringing a dogfighter, don't waste any hardpoints on anything other than flak.

Walkthrough
After you launch from the PANDORA, you'll be greeted with a squadron of 4 Russian Devastators. After you shoot them down, you'll fly over to the WORKERS' VOYAGE. You need to take out exactly half her engines (9) to reduce her speed; to make it easier, try taking out all the engines on one side only. From time to time, she'll launch sets of 3 Devastators that you'll need to down (usually only 2 sets, this will keep happening until you blow half the engines and you can potentially rack up a lot of kills as such).

After you cripple half of the WORKERS' VOYAGE engines, her crew will sound off that they are now stationary and vulnerable, where Nathan will sound off to his crew on boarding the zep. You will need to approach the docking crane from behind, and slow down to half your normal speed to hook up. The docking sequence will not happen if you are too fast or too low, and can lead to crashing onto the WORKERS' VOYAGE if not careful. A cutscene will show Nathan docking and Jack climbing up into the zep before Nathan unhooks from the docking crane and fly off.

After which, Sparks will signal that an unknown entity has been spotted south of the WORKERS' VOYAGE. Shortly after, Black Swan will announce her arrival with the Black Swans zeppelin DARK ANGEL emerging from the clouds. It will be accompanied by 5 Furies, as well as Black Swan herself. She will be cut off in her speech noticing your presence and orders her crew to engage. As always, take out the Ace first (while she's still talking even) and the fighters next. After all the fighters are down, the DARK ANGEL will turn tail and head off into the clouds.

Halfway fighting Swan and her crew Jack will announce having found Dr. Fassenbiender. Nathan will inform him they are engaged with the Black Swans and Jack will exclaim asking why they are here. Soon he will state that both of them are now waiting on the docking hook. Repeat the steps of docking, where Nathan approaches the hook exactly as before, and Dr. Fassenbiender will climb into your cockpit leaving Jack to parachute away.

With Dr. Fassenbiender with you in your plane Nathan will order everyone to mop up any remaining resistance. When all enemies are gone, you can head back to the PANDORA.

Be advised that you don't need to shoot down all the attacking planes at any point, but attempting to dock with the WORKERS' VOYAGE while they're still buzzing around can be very frustrating. It's also a good strategy to destroy the WORKERS' VOYAGE Turrets near the docking hook. She isn't going anywhere, so feel free to clear the skies and her defences before making your approach.

WORKERS' VOYAGE
It's really fun to show off your skills by destroying all enemy fighters and completely crippling the "Workers' Voyage" Zeppelin before you destroy any of its gasbags! To achieve this, you must know the zeppelin's attributes:

-10 Gasbags long (Nose & Tail included) -18 Engines (9 in each side) -1 Nose Anti-Aircraft Gun -8 Top Turrets -4 Belly Turrets

After you clear out every enemy aircraft AND after you collect Dr. Fassenbiender (if you don't take the doctor out of the Zeppelin, you won't be able to finish the mission) try to take out all of the engines until the Workers' Voyage remains dead still. Next shoot and destroy every turret and the nose anti-aircraft gun. You can now enjoy a completely crippled Workers' Voyage standing still! Now, before you dock with the Pandora, blow 5 of the Zep's gasbags with aerial torpedoes to make the Workers' Voyage fall into the sea! (however, you need to have the torpedoes from the loadout before the mission starts)

DARK ANGEL
You can perform the exact same "First disable, then down" trick with the Black Swans Zeppelin (although it's very hard to down both Zeppelins in one run). Her attributes are:

-5 Gasbags long (Nose & Tail included) -14 Engines (7 in each side) -12 Broadside Cannons (6 in each side) -1 Nose Anti-Aircraft Gun -1 Tail Anti-Aircraft Gun -8 Side Turrets (4 in each side) -4 Belly Turrets

Bear in mind that you need to take out 3 of the Zep's gasbags to bring her down.

Stunts
There are no stunts in this mission

Logbook items

 * Northwest Messenger newspaper clipping on "Pirate Gangs Tussle over Soviet Zep!"
 * Northwest Messenger Newspaper clipping on "Zachary Steals Royal Jewels!" (this explains why the Black Swans arrived)
 * Northwest Messenger Newspaper clipping on Dr. Fassenbiender, "Engineering Whiz Joins Boeing"
 * A letter from Black Swan

Trivia

 * This is the first mission that takes place above and below the clouds, where it can be very breathtaking. Be careful coming up through the clouds though, you can sometimes come out right at the WORKERS VOYAGE or DARK ANGEL and have a hard time avoiding it.
 * This is the first, final and only mission you fight against Black Swan and her crew.